Leadership Team

Founders & Co-Executive Directors

Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The organization delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. In order to bring the work to a broader audience, he co-developed the Foundations in Contemplative Care Training Program. Chodo is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling at NYZCCC’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He teaches in the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship.
Chodo is a dynamic, earthy, and visionary leader and teacher, Chodo has traveled extensively in the U.S teaching in various institutions as well as bearing witness to the suffering of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and South Africa. His public programs have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the living and dying. 30,000 people listen to his podcasts each year. His passion lies in bereavement counseling and advocating for change in the way our healthcare institutions work with the dying. His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle, Parabola and other media outlets. He is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher with the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
Download Chodo's Photo, Hi-Res Jpeg

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Zen-based organization to offer fully accredited ACPE clinical chaplaincy training in America. NYZCCC delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. Paley Ellison is the academic advisor for the Buddhist students in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling program at NYZCCC’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He has served as the co-director of Contemplative Care Services for the Department of Integrative Medicine and as the chaplaincy supervisor for the Pain and Palliative Care Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, where he also served on the Medical Ethics Committee. He is currently on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship, and he is a visiting professor at the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, of the University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston Medical School.
Paley Ellison is a dynamic, original, and visionary leader and teacher. Koshin is the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016). His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle and others. Through his six years of training at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association as well as clinical contemplative training at both Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and NewYork Presbyterian Medical Center which culminated in his role as an ACPE Certified Educator, chaplain, and Jungian psychotherapist. He began his formal Zen training in 1987, and he is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher by the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association. He serves on the Board of Directors at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Download Koshin's Photo, Hi-Res Jpeg

Director

Carmine comes to us with over 30 years of nonprofit experience that includes positions as Senior Vice President, Publishing at the National Audubon Society; Vice President, Marketing and Communications, New World Symphony; Executive Director, American Craft Council; and Director, National Academy Museum & School. She brings extensive experience and expertise in strategic planning, program and curriculum development, communication, management and administration, philanthropy/fundraising, and board development/facilitation. Perhaps as significant as her professional expertise, Carmine has been a member of our community for over two years and has had a meditation practice for decades.

Assistant to Director of Education and Training

Jushin Morrow worked twelve years as a special education teacher serving schools in NYC and Connecticut, specifically with students impacted my mental and behavioral health needs. Prior to becoming a teacher, Jushin spent several years working as an actor in regional theatre. He has a B.A. in Fine Arts, an M.S. in teaching from Pace University, and M.A. in Pastoral Care and Counseling from New York Theological Seminary and NYZCCC. Jushin comes to Zen practice from a background in contemplative Christianity having been introduced to Zen from the writings of Christian monastic, Thomas Merton. He is a formal Zen student serving as Jisha to his teacher, Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison. Jushin lives in Warwick, NY with his wife, Rev. Jennifer Morrow and his daughters, Claire and Lydia.

General Manager

Katherine comes to NYZCCC with a range of experience in program management, production, partnership development, and communications. She has worked in climate change and environmental advocacy, as well as communications for non-profits working in international development. Most recently, she worked in digital media producing and marketing short-form documentary series for AOL-Huffington Post. She first began meditation as a way to cope with anxiety and life’s impermanence after losing family to cancer and illness. Contemplative practice has allowed her to rediscover the joy, authenticity, and spontaneity of life. Her hobbies include traveling, including her favorite places Big Sur and the California redwoods, photography and snowboarding.

Philanthropy and Operations Manager

Sanghee Kim joins NYZCCC as a Philanthropy and Operations Manager with several years of experience in database management and fundraising. She has worked at a variety of nonprofits with a focus on social justice, and most recently as the Development Manager at the Innocence Project, whose mission is to free the unjustly incarcerated. She is enthusiastic to learn more about Zen Buddhism and looks forward to advancing contemplative care.

Board of Directors

Andrew Peter Hawkins currently serves as the Director and Global Head of Secondaries at Intermediate Capital Group PLC, having joined in 2014. Previously, Andrew founded NewGlobe Capital Partners LLP serving as Chief Executive Officer and Global Head of Secondaries. He also co-founded Clear Leisure PLC and Petspark serving as a Managing Partner, Member of Management Board, and Consultant at Vision Capital LLP. In 1999, Mr. Hawkins joined Palamon Capital Partners, where he was one of the original partners and oversaw private equity investing. Andrew has more than 30 years of experience in the United Kingdom and European markets in the industrial and private equity fields as well as in investment banking.
Andrew regularly attends NYZCCC’s Monday night sitting and dharma talk and is married to Lisa Walsh.

Gerry has significant experience in the fields of investment banking, private equity and venture capital with a special focus on socially responsible investing. Gerry spent over a decade as a senior investment banker, providing strategic advice and raising capital for a range of clients operating in industries such as media and telecommunications, technology, manufacturing and retail. From 2000 to 2006, Gerry was a senior partner at a private equity firm which pursued a strategy of supporting and partnering with organized labor to invest in U.S. based manufacturing companies. Beginning in 2006, Gerry organized and raised capital for creation of renewable and sustainable energy companies in the U.S. and Brazil and also managed a private equity fund with the mandate of investing in growth companies controlled by women and minority owners. More recently, Gerry has been involved as an investor, board member and advisor to a range of early-stage and start-up companies.
Gerry has served on the boards of several private and public companies, including: Trimas, Inc., Springs Industries, Inc., Springs/Coteminas SA Brazil, GMTI Inc., Collins and Aikman, Inc., Brenco, SA Brazil(Brazilian Renewable Energy Corp.), Cilion, Inc, AFA Foods, Inc., The Aspire Network, Inc., The Amalgamated Bank, Inc, YMF Media, Inc. and Soul Train Media, Inc. He also served as the founding Chairman of the Board of NYZCCC and served as Treasurer of the Board at NYZCCC from 2009–2014. He has been a meditator and student of Buddhism for over 15 years.

Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The organization delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. In order to bring the work to a broader audience, he co-developed the Foundations in Contemplative Care Training Program. Chodo is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling at NYZCCC’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He teaches in the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship.
Chodo is a dynamic, earthy, and visionary leader and teacher, Chodo has traveled extensively in the U.S teaching in various institutions as well as bearing witness to the suffering of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and South Africa. His public programs have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the living and dying. 30,000 people listen to his podcasts each year. His passion lies in bereavement counseling and advocating for change in the way our healthcare institutions work with the dying. His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle, Parabola and other media outlets. He is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher with the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
Download Chodo's Photo, Hi-Res Jpeg

Craig Davis is a graduate of NYZCCC’s Foundations in Contemplative Care Program, which he found “life changing”. He has been practicing meditation in Dzogchen and Zen traditions for over 25 years and is the Co Director of a Foundation whose mission is to encourage Western Buddhist Sangha’s to focus on end of life care for their aging practitioner demographic. Another passionate interest of Craig’s is in establishing homes in rural areas where people living alone, without the benefit of residential hospice, can be nurtured in their actively dying process. These homes would be primarily off the Medicare grid staffed by nurses and volunteers who have been trained in contemplative caring practices. With his wife Sandy, Craig owns an employee benefit consulting firm (RetirementGuard) in Lakeville Connecticut. The organization works primarily with Ivy League schools and teaching hospitals. He looks forward, “in some small part” to helping NYZCCC in their next stage of growth and outreach.

Edwards served on the Board of Trustees of Cure Autism Now, an organization that directly funds Autism research and advocates on behalf of families dealing with autism, from 1995 to 2001. He has also served, from 2007 to 2015, on the Board of Trustees of Shoe4Aftica, an organization dedicated to both improving health and empowerment through sport in East Africa. The most significant accomplishment was building the first public children’s hospital in Kenya.
Edwards has had a career as an actor in both film and television since 1978. Best known as Dr. Green in the ER television series from 1994 – 2002, and as Goose in the film Top Gun. He continues to work in film, television and theater. He recently directed the independent dark comedy, My Dead Boyfriend.
Edwards lives in NYC and is the father of four children.

Martin Ehrlich MD MPH has practiced medicine in NYC for over 30 years. A graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he began his career at Harlem Hospital at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic with a focus on preventive care, residency training and patient physician communication.
With a lifelong interest in Integrative Medicine, a field that emphasizes the importance of lifestyle, mind body relationship, and the wisdom of ancient healing traditions he was the Director of the Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing from 2008 to 2016.
Acutely aware of the inadequacies of the care of people with serious chronic illness near the end of life he was one of the founding board members of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
In 2016 he began fellowship training in Hospice and Palliative Medicine with Metroplitan Jewish Hospice Service. He lives in New York with his wife Yoana Baraschi, two beautiful daughters, two amazing cats and a python.

Barbara Gallay lives in Manhattan, and has spent most of her life in the travel business. She was president and owner of Linden Travel in New York City from 1973, when they had three employees, until she sold it in 2009 with over 120 people on staff. She was a founding member of Travel + Leisure’s Travel Agency Advisory Board and also served on the Travel Agency Advisory Boards of many leading travel companies, including Abercrombie & Kent, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Rosewood Hotels, Preferred Hotels, Cunard Line, and Virtuoso. Barbara was listed in Crain’s 100 Most Influential Women in NYC Business and as One of The Most Powerful Women in Travel by Forbes Executive Woman. She was recognized by Travel + Leisure Magazine as an “A-List All Star” for many years and by Travel Agent Magazine as one of “The Most Powerful Women in Travel”. Conde Nast Traveler included her on their “A List” for many years. Her passion for travel continues. Barbara is now associated with Classic Travel in New York and classictravel.com as V.P. Online Hotel Partnerships. She’s still traveling - visiting properties around the world, and consulting. She is also working with WPEO (Women’s Professional Educational Organization) and Capital One on a training program for female owners of small businesses. Barbara first came in contact with NYZCC in December, 2010, when she was caring for her partner for whom she had set up hospice care at home. She has been a passionate supporter of the Center since then, realizing how helpful the NYZCC can be for caretakers and those facing the end of life, and wants to help make this available to others.

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Zen-based organization to offer fully accredited ACPE clinical chaplaincy training in America. NYZCCC delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. Paley Ellison is the academic advisor for the Buddhist students in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling program at NYZCCC’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He has served as the co-director of Contemplative Care Services for the Department of Integrative Medicine and as the chaplaincy supervisor for the Pain and Palliative Care Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, where he also served on the Medical Ethics Committee. He is currently on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship, and he is a visiting professor at the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, of the University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston Medical School.
Paley Ellison is a dynamic, original, and visionary leader and teacher. Koshin is the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016). His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle and others. Through his six years of training at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association as well as clinical contemplative training at both Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and NewYork Presbyterian Medical Center which culminated in his role as an ACPE Certified Educator, chaplain, and Jungian psychotherapist. He began his formal Zen training in 1987, and he is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher by the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association. He serves on the Board of Directors at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Download Koshin's Photo, Hi-Res Jpeg

Robert (Red) Schiller is Senior Vice President, Clinical Affairs; Chair, Graduate Medical Education; Chair, Alfred and Gail Engelberg Department of Family Medicine at Mount Sinai/Beth Israel.
He attended the New York University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in family medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, where he also completed a one-year fellowship in family medicine. He has a professional interest in homeopathy, acupuncture, and other alternative therapies that complement conventional medical care, as well as a strong interest in the integration of alternative medicine into primary care training. Dr. Schiller is the recipient of several awards including the Park-Davis Award for Teaching Medicine.
Shiller is know for his leadership and innovation as a physician and administrator, serves on NYZCCC’s Advisory Board, and has worked closely with Koshin and Chodo on the upcoming Symposium as well as on other projects.

Lisa Walsh is a New York-based photographer and Founder/Curator of Tighemi LLC.
Born in Chicago, she spent 30 years living and working in London where she studied photography at the School of Black and White Photography and Central St. Martin’s College of Art. Her photography embodies a strong sense of shape and physical form, focusing on the hidden simplistic beauty of her subjects.
Inspired by years of visiting Morocco as both photographer and curious travel, she founded Tighemi. Tighemi celebrates the deep-rooted artisanal traditions of Morocco’s ancient past in a modern collection of unique pieces for the home and to wear. She is on the Board of Directors, Baxter Street at Camera Club of New York, Greater New York Chapter, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Communications Chairman
Lisa is married to Andrew Hawkins.

Advisory Council

Dr. Craig D. Blinderman, M.D., is currently the director of the Adult Palliative Medicine Service at Columbia University Medical Center and serves on the advisory board for the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
He was previously an attending physician on the Palliative Care Service at the Massachusetts General Hospital and directed the MGH Cancer Pain Clinic.
Dr. Binderman received his M.A. in philosophy from Columbia before earning his medical degree from Ben Gurion University in Israel. He completed both a residency in Family Medicine and a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in NY. He then went on to complete a medical ethics fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Blinderman has published articles and chapters on early palliative care in lung cancer patients, medical ethics, existential distress, symptom assessment and quality of life in chronic lung and heart failure patients, as well as pain management in hematology and oncology patients and patients with a history of substance abuse.
He is currently the section editor for Case Discussions in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. His academic interests include: decision-making at the end of life, the role of palliative care in public health, medical ethics, and the integration of palliative care in critical care medicine. He also has a strong interest in teaching and developing programs to improve students and residents’ skills in communication and care for the dying.

Ira Byock, MD is a leading palliative care physician, author, and public advocate for improving care through the end of life. He serves as Chief Medical Officer for the Institute for Human Caring of Providence Health and Services, based in Torrance, CA. Dr. Byock is Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He served as Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire from 2003 through July 2013. Dr. Byock has authored numerous articles on the ethics and practice of care. His research led to conceptual frameworks for the lived experience of advanced illness, subjective quality of life measures, and effective life-completion counseling. His leadership in development of groundbreaking prototypes for concurrent care of people through the end of life has been foundational to advancing patient-centered care. Byock’s first book, Dying Well, (1997) became a standard in the field of hospice and palliative care. The Four Things That Matter Most, (2004) is used as a counseling tool widely by palliative care and hospice programs, as well as within pastoral care. The Best Care Possible (March 2012) tackles the crisis that surrounds serious illness and dying in America and his quest to transform care through the end of life. More information is available at Ira.Byock.org

Constance Collins, Esq., is President and Executive Director. She is also the founder of Sundari Foundation dba Lotus House, which is a non-denominational 501c3 public charity dedicated to the support, education, advancement and social inclusion of homeless women and children. Separately, she serves as the Vice President of Lotus Endowment Fund, Inc., a 501c3 foundation organized and operated to support the Lotus House and other initiatives of Sundari Foundation. A lawyer and former businesswoman prior to founding Lotus House, Ms. Collins is a full time volunteer of the Foundation, directing and overseeing the development, operations, programming, services, advocacy and growth of Lotus House, in addition to other initiatives of the Foundation and Lotus Endowment. Additional initiatives of the Foundation include: Lotus House Thrift, LLC, operating a donations center and job training programs; and Lotus Wellness Center, LLC, a free health clinic offering women’s wellness exams and screenings to uninsured, indigent women.

Ms. Collins’ work on behalf of the Foundation is preceded by over twenty-two years of business, finance, real estate and legal experience. She served as the chief operating and financial officer, general counsel, and co-founder of a full service real estate investment advisory firm, Urban Investments Advisors, LLC (and its predecessor Starwood Urban Investments) and real estate holding company, Starwood Urban, LLC, and its subsidiaries, responsible for the management and operation of a national commercial real estate investment portfolio, overseeing growth and value-added strategies, development, financing, accounting, and reporting for portfolio revenues, until the successful disposition of those investments in 2005. Prior to Starwood, Ms. Collins was in private law practice, representing institutional investors and lenders in structuring, negotiating and documenting real estate, business and financial transactions, credit recovery, litigation oversight, and repositioning of investment properties. She graduated Order of Coif with a Juris Doctorate Degree from University of Colorado School of Law, Boulder, Colorado, and earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

Joe Fisher’s interests lie at the intersection of mindfulness, the arts, and person-centered care. He cofounded Renewal Care Partners, an organization that provides holistic home health care and social services to seniors and people with disabilities. At Renewal Care, Joe pioneered the development of culturally-competent home care and nursing services for LGBT seniors. Joe received his bachelor’s degree in art history and his master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University. He resides in New York and Chicago.

Gil is the primary teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. He was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Collective. He is a founder of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies. He is a husband and a father of two boys.

Zen Master (Roshi) Bernie Glassman is a world-renowned pioneer in the American Zen Movement. He is a spiritual leader, published author, accomplished academic and successful businessman with a PhD in Applied Mathematics. Dr. Glassman currently teaches and travels, giving talks and workshops on spiritual practice, socially responsible business and international peacemaking. He is the founder and co-spiritual director of the Zen Peacemakers. Bernie is the co-author, with Rick Fields, of Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Living a Life that Matters (Bell Tower, April 1996), the author of Bearing Witrness: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Making Peace (Bell Tower, May 1997), and Infinite Circle: Studies in Zen (Shambhala Publication, spring 2002).

From Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ryushin Paul Haller left home in 1971, lived in London for a year, then traveled throughout Europe, the middle east, Russia, and Afghanistan. He ended up in Japan, where he lived for a year and was introduced to Zen. Then he traveled throughout southeast Asia. He was ordained a Buddhist monk in Thailand, where he spent six months sitting in a remote cave. Moving to Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 1974, Paul was ordained as a priest by Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1980, who gave him the name Ryushin Zendo, “Dragon Heart, Zen Way.” In 1993 he received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman. Founder and formerly Director of Outreach at SFZC, Paul is interested in finding ways of expressing our practice in society, both as compassionate service and making it available to as many people as possible. He became abbot of Zen Center in 2003. He is a founder of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, in Redwood City, California.

Craig Harwood was a successful parking and real estate developer for 20 years when he began producing and writing award winning documentaries, plays and screenplays. These include, “The Most Famous Woman in the World,” based on the life of the first famous transsexual Christine Jorgensen, “Hunting Paradise” based on the life of Huntington Hartford, the heir to the A & P fortune and PATERNAL INSTINCT, the story of two gay men who have a child with a surrogate mother, which premiered on HBO/Cinemax. Craig signed Wendy Kram as his manager in 2012. In addition, Harwood is an activist who sits on the board of The Lantern Group, the largest organization in NY providing low income housing and The Threshold Foundation, a community of individuals who mobilize money, people and power to create a more just, joyful and sustainable world.

Fran Hauser is a venture capital investor, digital media veteran, and an advocate for women and kids. She is passionate about connecting people and inspiring change. An active investor, Hauser is a partner at Rothenberg Ventures ("RV"). Through her work at RV and as an angel investor, she has actively supported dozens of innovative companies including ZADY, LevoLeague, Hullabalu, Bustle and HelloGiggles and has invested in some of the most promising companies in digital media and e-commerce. Before diving into the world of venture capital, Hauser spent 15 years in the digital media space, most recently as the President of Digital for Time Inc.’s Style and Entertainment Group (SEG). In that role, Hauser oversaw PEOPLE.com, the most visited site in the publishing industry; EW.com; InStyle.com and Essence.com. Under Hauser's leadership, these sites reached over 20 million unique visitors per month; generated over one billion page views; and garnered a Twitter following of over 8 million. Hauser was also responsible for the mobile and tablet strategy for these brands, including the launch of over 20 consumer products, reaching more than 4 million users, available on the mobile web or as applications.

In addition to product development, Hauser oversaw acquisitions, large-scale distribution partnerships and best-in-class social media and search engine optimization practices. In 2010, Hauser led the acquisition of StyleFeeder, Time Inc.’s first major investment in e-commerce. She managed the acquisition and integration of Celebrity Baby Blog in 2008, increasing unique visitors from 300,000 to nearly 2 million in less than two years. Hauser also served as Vice President of AOL's Programming Group and was named Vice President and General Manager of Moviefone in 1999 after playing an integral role in the $400 million dollar sale of Moviefone to AOL. Prior to Moviefone, Hauser held positions at Ernst & Young, Coca-Cola Enterprises, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she began her career.

Hauser speaks frequently about topics such as career building, digital media and investing in and by women. She also writes regularly for publications such as Inc., Women 2.0, and Bedford Magazine, appears on CNBC's Power Pitch, and serves on the Executive Advisory Board for Techweek New York. In 2015, Hauser's decision to join Rothenberg Ventures was featured as a Harvard Business School case study; she also received the 2015 W Award from the YWCA of the City of New York, which honors change makers who are working to improve the lives of women. In 2014, Forty Over 40 selected Hauser as one of 40 Women to Watch Over 40, a distinction that honors women who are reinventing, disrupting and making an impact. That same year, she was also named one of the Six Most Powerful Women in New York City's Tech Scene by Refinery29 and was honored as a Global Champion of Women on International Women's Day. In 2011, she was honored by the Girl Scouts Council of Greater New York for strong leadership and was also named to Folio magazine’s annual “Folio: 40," a list honoring magazine and media industry influencers. She was recognized in 2009 as one of Advertising Age’s “Women to Watch”, and was inducted into Media Industry Newsletter’s (MIN) Digital Hall of Fame in 2008. A passionate advocate of women and children around the globe, Fran is a funder of the PBS documentary Half the Sky, Board Chair of GlobalGiving and an advisory board member of 92Y Women inPower, Rent the Runway's Project Entrepreneur, WomenOne and TIA Girl Club. A summa cum laude graduate of Pace University, Hauser lives in Bedford, New York with her husband and two darling boys.

Patricia Karpas, MBA, is currently head of Digital Strategy and Marketing for Gaiam TV, a division of Gaiam Inc., a lifestyle media and e-commerce company, with a focus on health, wellness, yoga, personal growth and ‘conscious media’. In this role, she is responsible for strategic, digital and brand marketing for this streaming video subscription service. Previously, she was President of Karpas Ventures, a consulting company that specialized in digital media for emerging start-ups, media companies and non-profits with an emphasis on health, wellness and social responsibility. Her portfolio of consulting clients at Karpas Ventures included companies like Discovery Communications, Time Inc. Digital Entertainment and Style Group, Time Inc. Lifestyle and Health Group, NBC’s I Village, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Whole Living Brand and Zazengo, a social media start-up. For the first 18 years of her business career, she worked in areas related to Entertainment and Media. From 2001 to 2007, she was General Manager of AOL Television, where she created the AOL online television channel and was responsible for the development of Joint Ventures with Networks and Studios. Before joining AOL in 2001, she spent 11 years with NBC where she served as an executive in the broadcast, cable and digital divisions, including CNBC, NBC, and NBC Interactive. While at NBC.com, she lead the development of innovative, interactive business strategies for NBC programs like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, ER, and The Olympics. Prior to joining NBC, Karpas spent six years with Time Warner Cable where she was responsible for retention marketing. In addition to New York Zen Center, Patricia also serves on the Board of Trustees of Continuum Health Partners/Beth Israel, and she serves on the Board of Advisors for the Artists for Charity’s Ethiopian Orphanage. Patricia currently splits her time between NYC and Boulder, Colorado.

Maureen Leahy is the Nurse Manager of the Wiener Family Palliative Care Unit at The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. She joined the Hertzberg Institute for Palliative Care in October of 2012. Maureen graduated from Niagara University in 1981 with a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. She has a Master's in Health Care Administration from National Louis University in Chicago. Maureen has played integral roles in Nursing throughout her career. She has served in director role of The Patty Berg Cancer Center, Outpatient Oncology, Medicine and Surgery and Q Life Palliative Care, in Southwest Florida. Maureen has a long career in Hospice and Palliative Care. She has been an educator and Nursing Leader of Large Hospice Programs in South Florida. She has been a trainer for HPNA, ELNEC, and has been involved in Hospice and Palliative Care curriculum development for Nursing programs. She authored the first study Guide for the Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse Generalist. She is Nationally Certified in Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing.

Terrence Meck is the Executive Director of The Palette Fund, a private foundation that honors the legacy of his late partner Rand Harlan Skolnick through collaborative grantmaking and programs that value human rights and education. Terrence started the foundation when Rand was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in March of 2008 and passed away shortly there after. From 2003 to 2008 Terrence and Rand o-owned The Raven Resort Properties in New Hope, PA, providing a vibrant resource for the diverse LGBT community and hosting dozens of noteworthy charity events. Terrence received his B.A. in Political Science from Princeton University in 2000 and then worked in New York City in Public Relations and Marketing in both the publishing and fashion industries. In 2001, he helped launch Giving Opportunities To Others (GOTO) a nonprofit organization dedicated to immersing youth in art and music while encouraging philanthropic awareness and leadership among young professionals. He was a board member of Fighting AIDS Continuously Together (FACT Bucks County), served on the NY Leadership Council of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and currently sits on the Board of the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a think tank that produces and disseminates research aimed at increasing the productivity of investments in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movement.

Dr. Diane E. Meier is Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), a national organization devoted to increasing the number and quality of palliative care programs in the United States. Under her leadership the number of palliative care programs in U.S. hospitals has more than tripled in the last 10 years. She is also Vice-chair for Public Policy and Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; and Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. In 2009-2010, she was a Health and Aging Policy Fellow in Washington, DC. Awards include a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius award’ Fellowship in 2008; HealthLeaders recognition as one of 20 Americans who make health care better in 2010; the American Cancer Society’s 2012 Medal of Honor for Cancer Control in recognition of her pioneering leadership of the effort to bring palliative care into mainstream medicine; and the American Geriatrics Society Edward Henderson State-of-the-Art Lecture Award in 2013.

Dr. Woodson C. Merrell, MD, ScD (hc) is the M. Anthony Fisher Director of Integrative Medicine at the Continuum Center for Health and Healing and the Chairman of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel. He has expertise and special interests in mind-body therapies (especially yoga, qi gong, and meditation), acupuncture, botanical therapies, nutrition and nutraceuticals, homeopathy, and indigenous healing systems (particularly Tibetan and Chinese Medicine). He has served as director, scientific director, co-developer, presenter and on the advisory boards for many professional medical conferences such as: Nutritional Medicine; Botanical Medicine; Native American Healing Traditions; Tibetan Medicine; CAM Expo; and Models of Healthcare. He has served as Chairman of New York State’s Board of Acupuncture, and since 1995 has been a Board Member of New York State’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct. Dr. Merrell is on the Steering and Policy Committees of the national Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, comprising 25% of the nation’s medical schools, pledged to transform medical education and physician training with integrative medicine. In 2004 he was a finalist for the first annual Bravewell Award for leadership in integrative medicine. He is a frequent guest and commentator for all major media both regionally and nationally, including CBS Morning Show, CNN, NPR, WBAI, Time, Forbes, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and more.

Dr. BJ Miller brings unique compassion to his role as Senior Director and Advocate of Zen Hospice Project. An electrical shock sustained while a Princeton undergraduate nearly cost him his life. He miraculously survived but lost both legs below the knee and half of one arm. By all accounts, BJ has developed an extraordinary sense of presence and understanding that he shares freely with patients, community and the Zen Hospice Project he leads. As executive director of this non-profit organization since 2010, BJ oversees its pioneering integration of social and medical services founded in spirituality.
Working from the belief in death as a part of life, he is also actively engaged in cultivating a re-examined dialogue about this universal experience - as much through ZHP’s own human-centered model of care as through exploratory work with the international design firm IDEO, participation in various healthcare policy initiatives, including San Francisco’s Palliative Care Task Force, and through public speaking including the culminating talk at TED2015, all helping to make compassionate end-of-life care available to all.
Following undergraduate studies in art history at Princeton, BJ received his MD at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) as a Regents' Scholar and completed his internal medicine residency at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA, where he served as chief resident. He also completed a fellowship in Hospice & Palliative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, with clinical duties split between Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
BJ also serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF, and is an attending specialist for Palliative Care Service at UCSF Medical Center and the Symptom Management Service of the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, a groundbreaking outpatient palliative care clinic.

Dr. Russell Portenoy is Chief Medical Officer of MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care and Executive Director of the MJHS Institute for Innovation in Palliative Care. He is a Professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Prior to joining MJHS, Dr. Portenoy was founding Chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care and the Gerald J. Friedman Chair in Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York. Dr. Portenoy is past-president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and past-president of the American Pain Society. He previously chaired the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Leadership Award of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; the Galen Miller Leadership Award of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization; the Wilbert Fordyce Award for Lifetime Excellence in Clinical Investigation and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Pain Society; and the Founder’s Award by the American Academy of Pain Medicine. Dr. Portenoy has been Editor‑in‑Chief of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management for more than two decades, co-edits the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, and is editor for the palliative care section of The Oncologist. He has written, co-authored, or edited 21 books and more than 525 papers and book chapters on topics in pain and symptom management, opioid pharmacotherapy, and palliative care.

Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. She is one of America’s leading spiritual teachers and authors, and has been a student of Buddhism since 1971, leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Sharon’s latest book is The Force of Kindness, published by Sounds True. She is also the author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, published by Riverhead Books; Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart as Wide as the World, both published by Shambhala Publications; and co-author with Joseph Goldstein of Insight Meditation, a Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate (audio), from Sounds True. For more information about Sharon, please visit: www.SharonSalzberg.com.

Sebene Selassie is a meditation teacher and certified Integral Coach®. She has been studying Buddhism since majoring in Comparative Religious Studies as an undergrad at McGill University. For over 20 years she worked with children, youth, and families nationally and internationally for small and large not–for–profits. Her work has taken her everywhere from the Tenderloin in San Francisco to refugee camps in Guinea, West Africa. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Sebene is a breast cancer survivor.

Gina Sharpe was born in Jamaica and immigrated to New York at the age of 11. She has an A.B. in Philosophy from Barnard College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. Before practicing law, she worked for the New York City government (the Lindsay Administration), in the motion picture industry (as Assistant to the Producer of feature length films Little Big Man, Paper Lion and Alice’s Restaurant), as well as conducting research in public not-for-profits. As a lawyer, she practiced as a corporate litigator and then as a corporate lawyer. She also served as an executive in the fields of venture capital and mergers and acquisitions.

After retiring from the practice of law, she co-founded New York Insight Meditation Center. Trained as a retreat teacher in a joint Teacher Training Program of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society, she teaches at various venues around the United States including Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, Vallecitos Mountain Refuge, Mid America Dharma, Garrison Institute, Asia Society, Tibet House, the New York Open Center, the Katonah Yoga Center and a maximum security prison for women. She has been teaching the Dharma since 1995. She has served on the boards of directors of several not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.

Alessandra Strada, PhD is Assistant Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. She is also Attending Psychologist in the department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center, in New York City. Alessandra is the director of the Supportive Treatment and Resources (STAR) Program, a specialist palliative care program that focuses on palliative care and hospice patients who do not have caregiver support or whose caregivers are too distressed to meet their loved ones’ needs. Alessandra is Core Faculty and member of the education committee in the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship and the Pain Medicine Fellowship at Beth Israel Medical Center. She serves as faculty in the psychology internship program in the department of psychiatry. Alessandra is also assistant Professor in the department of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Teachers & Facilitators

Guiding Teachers

Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The organization delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. In order to bring the work to a broader audience, he co-developed the Foundations in Contemplative Care Training Program. Chodo is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling at NYZCCC’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He teaches in the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship.
Chodo is a dynamic, earthy, and visionary leader and teacher, Chodo has traveled extensively in the U.S teaching in various institutions as well as bearing witness to the suffering of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and South Africa. His public programs have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the living and dying. 30,000 people listen to his podcasts each year. His passion lies in bereavement counseling and advocating for change in the way our healthcare institutions work with the dying. His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle, Parabola and other media outlets. He is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher with the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association.
Download Chodo's Photo, Hi-Res Jpeg

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Zen-based organization to offer fully accredited ACPE clinical chaplaincy training in America. NYZCCC delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. Paley Ellison is the academic advisor for the Buddhist students in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling program at NYZCCC’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He has served as the co-director of Contemplative Care Services for the Department of Integrative Medicine and as the chaplaincy supervisor for the Pain and Palliative Care Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, where he also served on the Medical Ethics Committee. He is currently on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School’s Center for Integrative Medicine’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship, and he is a visiting professor at the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, of the University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston Medical School.
Paley Ellison is a dynamic, original, and visionary leader and teacher. Koshin is the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016). His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle and others. Through his six years of training at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association as well as clinical contemplative training at both Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and NewYork Presbyterian Medical Center which culminated in his role as an ACPE Certified Educator, chaplain, and Jungian psychotherapist. He began his formal Zen training in 1987, and he is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher by the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association. He serves on the Board of Directors at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Download Koshin's Photo, Hi-Res Jpeg

Visiting Zen Teachers

Dai-en’s spiritual journey began in the 60s when she was forced to seek help for a back injury. This event proved to be a wonderful preparation for her eventual immersion 20 years later in Buddhist Vipassana practice at Insight Meditation Center. After she established her Vipassana practice, she then began her journey into Zen practice. Her teachers include Roshi Peter Muryo Mathiessen, Joseph Goldstein, Matt Flickstein, and Maureen Stuart Roshi. Dai-en received Dharma Transmission from Roshi Peter Muryo Matheissen as a Soto Zen Teacher. She is now a Sensei at Ocean Zendo, located on Eastern Long Island. She is honored to be invited teach with Koshin and Chodo in the wonderful work at NYZCCC, for the benefit of all beings, as we live and die.

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Ph.D., is an author and ordained Zen Buddhist priest. She combines Zen meditation, intuitive knowing, and indigenous wisdom in a path of liberation. She applies spiritual teachings to our lived experiences in the context of race, sexuality, and gender and at the same time hold these experiences as gateways to absolute freedom. With her own insights and creative teachings she encourages us to make a commitment to freedom and take refuge in it. Ultimately, she invites meditations on the nature of embodiment within a boundless life. As a teacher she continues as a student by dedicating herself to ongoing study and dharma practice (including yearly residential retreats) and to deepening continually her understanding and embodiment of the Buddha’s teachings. She is the guiding teacher of Still Breathing Meditation Center in Oakland, CA.

Sensei Jose Shinzan Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He is a Zen priest and Dharma Successor of Roshi Joan Halifax. He has been practicing Zen since 1996. Shinzan lived in the Toronto Zen Buddhist Temple for 4 years. He was ordained in 2004 as a Zen Buddhist Priest by Ven. Samu Sunim.
In 2006, he became a resident and student of Roshi Joan Halifax. He lived and trained for over 8 years at Upaya. He received the Dharma transmission on Jan 2015 from Roshi Joan Halifax.
Shinzan co-teaches a teenagers retreat for the Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, and weekends retreats in several parts of the country. Currently, he lives in San Diego and teaches at the Carlsbad Zen Community and Sweetwater Zen Center.
His vision is to teach youth and create a zen Hispanic community in the USA and Mexico.

angel Kyodo williams, Sensei, is an American writer, ordained Zen priest and the author of Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace. williams is the Spiritual Director of the meditation-based newDharma Community and founder of the Center for Transformative Change in Berkeley, California. As of October 2013, she is the world's 2nd Black female Zen teacher.

Mentors

Barbara Doshin Ende lives in northern Westchester with her husband, Pat, and their various animals. She came to Foundations and then CPE as a way to round out her professional experience working in healthcare. Dōshin had a thirty three career working in clinical services for the disabled and presently is a guardianship advocate for people with developmental disabilities. She has an MA in psychology and completed the MA in Pastoral Care and Counseling at New York Theological Seminary through the Zen Center. After six years of clinical training with the Zen Center, she is a mentor for the Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care Training and has co-led contemplative bereavement groups and the Zen Center’s Living Fearlessly course. Doshin began her Buddhist practice over eleven years ago and this has increased with learning and commitment since becoming a formal Zen student with her teacher, Robert Chodo Campbell.

Deborah Jyoshin Stewart, a life-long New Yorker, first came to the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care to practice zazen with Senseis Koshin Paley Ellison and Robert Chodo Campbell. In the midst of a life of service to public schools, public policy, and non-profit organizations, she found inspiration in the Zen Center’s practice of contemplative care. Deborah completed the Foundations in Contemplative Care program serving patients and staff at Lenox Hill Hospital.
She is currently a student in the Zen Center’s Clinical Pastoral Education, serving as a contemplative chaplain intern at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, and formally studies Zen Buddhism with her teacher, Sensei Koshin. She is co-steward of the NY Metro Circle of Zen Peacemakers and is a board member of the Greyston Foundation and the Hunts Point Alliance for Children. She received an MA in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Jim Mintz, and always has a home for their children, Hannah and Jack.

Guest Speakers

Allison F. Avery has been in the diversity field and worked with marginalized populations for over two decades. She is currently the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at New York University School of Medicine. In this role, she is charged with overseeing and directing The Office of Diversity Affairs, the scope of which includes: developing and implementing institutional diversity and inclusion initiatives across the educational pipeline, designing and delivering cultural competency, health disparity and critical reflection curriculum, engaging in recruitment and retention efforts focused on demographic populations under-represented in medicine and managing health professions pipeline programming. Her subject matter expertise is unconscious bias, ethno-cultural empathy, organizational and analytical psychology. In addition to her role at NYU School of Medicine, Ms. Avery is a senior Psychoanalytic Candidate with the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association (JPA) and has a private practice in New York City.
Previously, Ms. Avery served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco addressing rural health disparities, women’s health issues and gender inequality. She received her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from New York University and her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Baldwin-Wallace College. Ms. Avery has worked in organizational development in long-term care facilities and led a city-wide mental health and anti-stigma campaign focused on gero-psychology with the Mental Health Association of New York City. She facilitated a range of workshops, including: Fostering Understanding through Reminiscence and Life Narrative, and Triple Invisibility: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Age. Ms. Avery has directed a myriad of community outreach and volunteer efforts, including advocacy for the dually diagnosed homeless population to youth programs on Lakota Sioux reservations.

Dr. Craig D. Blinderman, M.D., is currently the director of the Adult Palliative Medicine Service at Columbia University Medical Center and serves on the advisory board for the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
He was previously an attending physician on the Palliative Care Service at the Massachusetts General Hospital and directed the MGH Cancer Pain Clinic.
Dr. Binderman received his M.A. in philosophy from Columbia before earning his medical degree from Ben Gurion University in Israel. He completed both a residency in Family Medicine and a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in NY. He then went on to complete a medical ethics fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Blinderman has published articles and chapters on early palliative care in lung cancer patients, medical ethics, existential distress, symptom assessment and quality of life in chronic lung and heart failure patients, as well as pain management in hematology and oncology patients and patients with a history of substance abuse.
He is currently the section editor for Case Discussions in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. His academic interests include: decision-making at the end of life, the role of palliative care in public health, medical ethics, and the integration of palliative care in critical care medicine. He also has a strong interest in teaching and developing programs to improve students and residents’ skills in communication and care for the dying.

Ira Byock, MD is a leading palliative care physician, author, and public advocate for improving care through the end of life. He serves as Chief Medical Officer for the Institute for Human Caring of Providence Health and Services, based in Torrance, CA. Dr. Byock is Professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He served as Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire from 2003 through July 2013. Dr. Byock has authored numerous articles on the ethics and practice of care. His research led to conceptual frameworks for the lived experience of advanced illness, subjective quality of life measures, and effective life-completion counseling. His leadership in development of groundbreaking prototypes for concurrent care of people through the end of life has been foundational to advancing patient-centered care. Byock’s first book, Dying Well, (1997) became a standard in the field of hospice and palliative care. The Four Things That Matter Most, (2004) is used as a counseling tool widely by palliative care and hospice programs, as well as within pastoral care. The Best Care Possible (March 2012) tackles the crisis that surrounds serious illness and dying in America and his quest to transform care through the end of life. More information is available at Ira.Byock.org

Rita Charon is a general internist and literary scholar at Columbia University who originated the field of narrative medicine. She is founder and Executive Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia and Professor of Medicine at CUMC. She completed the MD at Harvard in 1978 and the Ph.D. in English at Columbia in 1999, concentrating on the works of Henry James. Her research investigates narrative medicine training, reflective practice, and health care team effectiveness and is supported by the NIH, the NEH, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, and several additional private foundations. She lectures and teaches internationally on narrative medicine and is widely published in leading medical and literary journals. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and distinctions from clinical and literary societies. She is the author of Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness (Oxford University Press, 2006) and co-author of Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine, in preparation for Oxford University Press.

Mark Doty‘s Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. His eight books of poems include School of the Arts, Source, and My Alexandria. He has also published four volumes of nonfiction prose: Still Life with Oysters and Lemon, Heaven’s Coast, Firebird and Dog Years, which was a New York Times bestseller in 2007. Doty’s work has been honored by the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Whiting Writers Award, two Lambda Literary Awards and the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. He is the only American poet to have received the T.S. Eliot Prize in the U.K., and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, Ingram Merrill and Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Foundations, and from the National Endowment for the Arts. Doty lives in New York City and on the east end of Long Island.

Karla Jackson-Brewer has been a student of Lama Tsultrim Allione for 25 years. She is a Tara Mandala Authorized Teacher, and has traveled with Lama Tsultrim on Pilgrimage to Tibet & Bali. Karla has been practicing Chöd for 24 years and has assisted Lama Tsultrim on many Chöd Retreats. For the past 2 years she has taught the Chöd at Tara Mandala with Chandra Easton, another Tara Mandala Authorized Teacher.She received the Chöd Empowerment from His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje.

Trudi Jinpu Hirsch-Abramson is an ACPE certified chaplain supervisor and an APC certified chaplain. A resident of Zen Mountain Monastery for 12 years, she completed her monastic training in 1998 and was ordained as a Zen Buddhist Priest and received Denkai transmission in the White Plum Sangha. She previously worked for 14 years as a chaplain and supervisor at various hospitals in New York City. For eight years, Jinpu served as a faculty member and Chaplain Supervisor for the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care in NYC. She is presently the chaplain supervisor at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Marie Howe was born in 1950 and received her MFA from Columbia University in 1983. Her debut volume, The Good Thief, was selected by Margaret Atwood as winner of the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series, published in 1988 by Persea Books. Since then, she has published two more collections, What the Living Do (W. W. Norton, 1998) and The Kingdom of the Ordinary (2008). In 1995, she edited (with Michael Klein) the anthology In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. About her work, the poet Stanley Kunitz has said, "Marie Howe's poetry is luminous, intense, and eloquent, rooted in an abundant inner life." Her awards include a fellowship at the Bunting Institute, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She has served on the faculty of several schools, including Tufts University and Dartmouth College. She currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence, New York University, and Columbia University in New York City, where she lives with her daughter. In August 2012 she was named the State Poet Laureate of New York State.

Josh Korda has been studying the dhamma since 1995 and received his initial teacher training with Noah Levine. He gives regular talks at DharmaPunx New York, as well as other sanghas in New York City. Over the years Josh has had the honor to sit with and learn from a variety of respected practitioners such as Ajahns Geoff, Brahm, Vajiro and Sucitto, to name a few. Josh lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

Tieraona Low Dog, M.D.’s exploration of natural medicine and its role in modern health care began more than 35 years ago as she studied midwifery, herbal medicine; massage therapy and martial arts before earning her medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
An internationally recognized expert in the fields of integrative medicine, dietary supplements, herbal medicine and women’s health:
•Dr. Low Dog serves as the Fellowship Director for the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine - a two year Fellowship training Healthcare professionals in Integrative Medicine and Health
•Dr. Low Dog is a founding member of the American Board of Physician Specialties American Board of Integrative Medicine and the Academy of Women’s Health
•She has been an invited speaker to more than 550 scientific/medical conferences, published 40 peer-reviewed articles, written 20 chapters for medical textbooks, and has authored five books, including three National Geographic books, Fortify Your Life, Healthy at Home and Life is Your Best Medicine
For more information, see: www.DrLowDog.com/about.html

Dr. Diane E. Meier is Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), a national organization devoted to increasing the number and quality of palliative care programs in the United States. Under her leadership the number of palliative care programs in U.S. hospitals has more than tripled in the last 10 years. She is also Vice-chair for Public Policy and Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; and Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. In 2009-2010, she was a Health and Aging Policy Fellow in Washington, DC. Awards include a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius award’ Fellowship in 2008; HealthLeaders recognition as one of 20 Americans who make health care better in 2010; the American Cancer Society’s 2012 Medal of Honor for Cancer Control in recognition of her pioneering leadership of the effort to bring palliative care into mainstream medicine; and the American Geriatrics Society Edward Henderson State-of-the-Art Lecture Award in 2013.

Dr. BJ Miller brings unique compassion to his role as Senior Director and Advocate of Zen Hospice Project. An electrical shock sustained while a Princeton undergraduate nearly cost him his life. He miraculously survived but lost both legs below the knee and half of one arm. By all accounts, BJ has developed an extraordinary sense of presence and understanding that he shares freely with patients, community and the Zen Hospice Project he leads. As executive director of this non-profit organization since 2010, BJ oversees its pioneering integration of social and medical services founded in spirituality.
Working from the belief in death as a part of life, he is also actively engaged in cultivating a re-examined dialogue about this universal experience - as much through ZHP’s own human-centered model of care as through exploratory work with the international design firm IDEO, participation in various healthcare policy initiatives, including San Francisco’s Palliative Care Task Force, and through public speaking including the culminating talk at TED2015, all helping to make compassionate end-of-life care available to all.
Following undergraduate studies in art history at Princeton, BJ received his MD at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) as a Regents' Scholar and completed his internal medicine residency at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA, where he served as chief resident. He also completed a fellowship in Hospice & Palliative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, with clinical duties split between Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
BJ also serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF, and is an attending specialist for Palliative Care Service at UCSF Medical Center and the Symptom Management Service of the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, a groundbreaking outpatient palliative care clinic.

Rev. Leslye Noyes, PsyD, MDiv, LP, LMHC, is a certified Jungian Analyst in private practice in NYC. Leslye sees individuals and couples and supervises therapists interested in learning how to work symbolically. She graduated from Union Theological Seminary and is an ordained UCC minister. She was awarded the Post. M.Div. Mission Fellowship from the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, which she used to develop visual art as a ministerial tool. Leslye completed training programs at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, Blanton Peale Institutes for Religion and Mental Health and the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association. She is a certified Pastoral Counselor and a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. She currently serves as the Dean of Candidates at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association.

Michael Rogan, PhD, LCSW is a psychotherapist, research neuroscientist and a Buddhist practitioner for over 30 years. His work is informed by insights from neuroscience and Buddhist theory of mind, as well as psychodynamic, cognitive and behavioral approaches. He teaches meditation in both traditional and clinical settings, and trains clinicians in the integration of meditation techniques in health care. His research on the behavioral neuroscience of emotion, learning and mental illness has been widely published, and he has been on the research faculties of the Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Currently, he spends most of his time as a psychotherapist at community mental health clinics and in private practice.

Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. She is one of America’s leading spiritual teachers and authors, and has been a student of Buddhism since 1971, leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Sharon’s latest book is The Force of Kindness, published by Sounds True. She is also the author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, published by Riverhead Books; Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart as Wide as the World, both published by Shambhala Publications; and co-author with Joseph Goldstein of Insight Meditation, a Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate (audio), from Sounds True. For more information about Sharon, please visit: www.SharonSalzberg.com.

Robert (Red) Schiller is Senior Vice President, Clinical Affairs; Chair, Graduate Medical Education; Chair, Alfred and Gail Engelberg Department of Family Medicine at Mount Sinai/Beth Israel.
He attended the New York University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in family medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, where he also completed a one-year fellowship in family medicine. He has a professional interest in homeopathy, acupuncture, and other alternative therapies that complement conventional medical care, as well as a strong interest in the integration of alternative medicine into primary care training. Dr. Schiller is the recipient of several awards including the Park-Davis Award for Teaching Medicine.
Shiller is know for his leadership and innovation as a physician and administrator, serves on NYZCCC’s Advisory Board, and has worked closely with Koshin and Chodo on the upcoming Symposium as well as on other projects.

Sebene Selassie is a meditation teacher and certified Integral Coach®. She has been studying Buddhism since majoring in Comparative Religious Studies as an undergrad at McGill University. For over 20 years she worked with children, youth, and families nationally and internationally for small and large not–for–profits. Her work has taken her everywhere from the Tenderloin in San Francisco to refugee camps in Guinea, West Africa. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Sebene is a breast cancer survivor.

Rita Sherr is the Founding Director of Education for The New York Milton H. Erickson Society for Psychotherapy and Hypnosis and is on the faculty of The Integrative Medicine Department at Beth Israel Medical Center. Rita has studied with Dr. Milton Erickson. In addition, Rita has been teaching courses, conducting workshops and an supervising students in hypnotherapy for over 40 years. She has presented at conferences and workshops nationally and internationally. For additional information regarding Rita Sherr, visit her website at www.RitaSherr.com

Evan works as a Chaplain with The Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute based at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He began his training with NYZCCC in 2010 in the Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care Program, subsequently completing four units of Clinical Pastoral Education with NYZCCC at Mount Sinai, supporting its palliative care and oncology patients and families. Evan has been practicing Tibetan Buddhism/Dzogchen for fifteen years and is grateful for his ever-deepening Zen education with Dai-En, Koshin and Chodo. He has completed his Master of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling: Buddhist Track at New York Theological Seminary. For the past twenty-five years he has consulted for international businesses, organizations, and professionals. Evan has co-established the endowment for Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India and is also a cofounder and adviser of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Initiatives, a U.S. not-for-profit 501(c)(3). He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Rick.

Contemplative Care Advisory Committee

The Contemplative Care Advisory Committee of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care is a group of interdisciplinary professionals, who offer advice and counsel for our Contemplative Care CPE Chaplaincy Training Program in regards to planning, development and program evaluation. This helps insure our program is well integrated within the organization and provides feedback for quality assurance.

Rande Gail Brown, LCSW, was a founding board member and formerly the Executive Director of the Tricycle Foundation, publisher of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, America’s leading Buddhist magazine. With a degree in East Asian Studies from Princeton University, Rande lived for many years in Japan, where she was Associate Director of the International Division of the Institute for Religion and Psychology in Tokyo. Upon returning to the U.S., she founded East West Communications, a leading force in cross-cultural programming between Japan and the United States for over 20 years. A well-known translator of Japanese spiritual and cultural texts, Rande co-authored the New York Times bestseller Geisha, A Life with Mineko Iwasaki (Atria, 2002). Rande is a proud graduate of the first Foundations Course of the NYZCCC (2008). Her experience as a volunteer chaplain inspired her to become a licensed psychotherapist with a specific interest in the intersection of Buddhism, spirituality, and psychology. She is currently a candidate in the Psychoanalytic Training Program of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology and has a private practice in Greenwich Village.

Martin Ehrlich MD MPH has practiced medicine in NYC for over 30 years. A graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he began his career at Harlem Hospital at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic with a focus on preventive care, residency training and patient physician communication.
With a lifelong interest in Integrative Medicine, a field that emphasizes the importance of lifestyle, mind body relationship, and the wisdom of ancient healing traditions he was the Director of the Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing from 2008 to 2016.
Acutely aware of the inadequacies of the care of people with serious chronic illness near the end of life he was one of the founding board members of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.
In 2016 he began fellowship training in Hospice and Palliative Medicine with Metroplitan Jewish Hospice Service. He lives in New York with his wife Yoana Baraschi, two beautiful daughters, two amazing cats and a python.

Marsha J. Handel, MLSMs, has been a medical librarian at Beth Israel Medical Center for over twenty years, with a specialty in Integrative Medicine. She is co-author of the award winning book Alternative Medicine Resource Guide and has published articles, book chapters and taught professional-level classes on search techniques and resources in the field. Ms. Handel developed the Center’s educational web site and their first online continuing medical education course on the Integrative Approaches to IBS. She has co-created many health web sites, including the Addiction Recovery Guide, Healing Chronic Pain and Healing Digestive Disorders. In 2006 Ms. Handel received a 2 1/2 year NIH grant to develop a multimedia patient education web site on the Integrative Approach to Chronic Diseases: Heart Disease, Diabetes and Chronic Pain.

Dr. Emily Hartzog M.D. is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She received her medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and completed her Internship and Residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Hartzog spent two years in England with the National Health Service, then returned for five years to the Indian Health Service in New Mexico. She spent the following twelve years in solo practice in the Four Corners region of the Southwest. She enjoyed taking care of a diverse population of patients, including Native Americans, ranchers, and people from the local surrounding communities.
Dr. Hartzog is bilingual in English and Spanish and has spent much time in Mexico where she developed and currently operates a clinic for indigenous peoples in Patzcuaro, Michoacan. She highly values her work in cooperation with Traditional Healers and learning about medicinal plants. She is interested in a holistic approach to medicine and individualized care and is looking forward to integrating her clinical expertise with a wide range of healing approaches at the Center.

Jeanne Brennan Kenney, RN, BSN, HN-BC, is a board certified holistic nurse, who has practiced at the Continuum Center for Health and Healing for the past three years. Currently, Program Manager for the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program at Beth Israel Medical Center, she is responsible for launching and managing a program which is funded by the Urban Zen Initiative , that brings holistic healing modalities to Beth Israel’s oncology floor. Her previous work at the Center has been as the Research Coordinator for a program utilizing an integrative approach for the treatment of asthma symptoms in adults. Having worked for seven years on the NIH sponsored Women’s Health Initiative Reasearch Program, as the BI coordinator for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she realized the opportunity to engage in meaningful research in women’s health and disease prevention. In her previous career as a teacher at the United States Information Service schools, she lived and worked in Italy and France for six years and enjoyed travelling extensively throughout Europe. Upon return to the United States, she began a long career in the fashion industry, prior to realizing her long held desire to work in the medical field, incorporating holistic healing modalities for patients and families, with her traditional nursing training.

Rabbi Hanniel Levenson was born in Haifa, Israel and his formative years were shaped on the middle east side of Manhattan, NYC. An expert in the train system, Hanniel was schooled in New York's finest education facilities receiving a B.A. in Religion & Art from New York University, a Master of Science in Environmental Policy from Bard College, and Rabbinical Ordination from The Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers. Whilst educating his mind, Hanniel was a competitive gymnast for 15 years and is now a yoga teacher and personal trainer. Founder of The God Shop and Seven Heart Center, both mythical entities coming into existence through the kabbalistic four worlds model; Hanniel asks all free seekers and spiritual warriors to join him on the body-mind-soul train. A journey in practices of playfulness, liberation, and cosmic wonder. Drawing upon the wisdom masters of the world's traditions and cultivating the ritual architect potential in all. Hanniel is the Associate Rabbi and Director of Education at The Jewish Center of the Hamptons.